American Pastoral

By Philip Roth

Categories: Literature & Fiction

American Pastoral is a 1997 novel by Philip Roth that won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It is the first book of Roth's American Trilogy and is narrated by his recurring character Nathan Zuckerman. Seymour "Swede" Levov is a star athlete from Newark who takes over his father's glove factory, marries a former Miss New Jersey, and seems to live the American dream. His life falls apart when his teenage daughter Merry plants a bomb in 1968 to protest the Vietnam War, killing a man and then disappearing.

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• Stephen King: “I keep thinking I must have seen all of Roth’s talent, and I keep being wrong.”